By Madison Williams
Faculty advisor: Christopher Garcia
11:00-11:50am HCC 328
Over the years, the rapid adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms has been met with conflicting views. While discourse surrounding AI is often positive and framed as innovative and forward-moving, there are scholars who contend that actors are hastily adopting algorithms at the expense of ethical values. The ethical concerns that are raised are often normative in nature, with respect to the erosion of information privacy and the like. While it is clear that there is a need for a universal guideline for ethical AI within the United States, there is a lack of consensus amongst scholars on the best way to do so. Consequently, a plethora of ethical guidelines from various institutions have been established in order to fill this void for stakeholders and various actors. However, this short-term solution is crippling, with all the ethical AI guidelines seemingly alike, stuck in the perpetual future tense, and lacking directive. There are two aspects to this problem: 1) the abundance of ethical guidelines leaves actors uncertain as to which guideline to follow 2) the absence of an authoritative regulatory regime or legislation for AI systems allows actors to default to a biased internal assessment of their own ethical practices. While the United States has continued to acknowledge the importance of the need to operationalize current ethical guidelines and develop an overarching formal ethical guideline, there has been little action beyond that sentiment. In sum, the United States has largely over-promised and underdelivered in the construction of viable frameworks for widescale deployment.
Through this extensive literature review, this thesis will aid in diminishing the noise of repetitive language found within ethical guidelines and highlighting frameworks with the most potential for deployment within the United States. The overall construction of this thesis is done in hopes of placing more accountability on those who utilize AI systems to better protect our society.
